Dermod Travis

Executive Director, IntegrityBC

Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC, a non-profit group dedicated to restore a bond between citizens and their elected officials. He has been the executive director of the Canada Tibet Committee from 2007 to 2011, and is the founder of PIRA Communications.

Travis is a former member of Quebec’s Estates General on the Situation and the Future of the French Language and its Comité d’examen sur la langue d’enseignement. He's given guest lectures at the Université de Montréal, Columbia University, Concordia University, Carleton University and McGill University.

For the last six weeks, deep in the B.C. legislature, eight MLAs have been toiling away at trying to set spending limits for municipal parties and their candidates in 2018, as well as third parties. It's been an oddly quiet discussion, given that their recommendations might restore a modicum of faith in local democracy. Might.

Saturday was a good day for local democracy in B.C. As one person noted online: "First time in my life I've had to wait to vote in a local election....What the hell is going on?" What was going on was that voters were coming out of the woodwork by the thousands in towns and cities across B.C. and it seems that those who skipped 2011 had one thing on their mind this time.

Considering that local councils in B.C. spend more than $8 billion a year of our money, it's a bit of a paradox that most voters -- if it's anything like last time -- will find something else to do this Saturday. In 2011, some communities saw turnouts of less than 30 per cent. In Vancouver, 34.6 per cent of voters cast a ballot. So maybe it's time to spark some inter-provincial rivalry for bragging rights.

B.C. Premier Clark is being accompanied to India by the advanced education minister and 72 travelling companions from different economic sectors including education, LNG and the film industry. But there's also representation from the fashion industry, decorative stones, a port authority, a modelling agency, heavy equipment, a used car dealer, a travel firm and even a Tim Horton's franchisee. A handful of the companies don't have a website or a listed phone number anywhere in Canada.

Batten down the hatches, because this fall it's not just the threat of extreme weather British Columbians need to worry about; MLAs are returning to Victoria for a rare fall sitting of the legislature as well. And if the spring sitting was any indication, don't hold your breath hoping for much in the way of ministerial accountability.

The next election is in 2017. You suspect that voters might want to see a little something for all the hype before then, so what to do? Well, take one of the proposed projects and slam the pedal to the metal. And by all accounts, that project is the proposed Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish.

In a 40-page opinion released last week, B.C. Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser pretty well cleared former Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm of any wrongdoing with respect to his obligations under the Members' Conflict of Interest Act, despite the odd "tsk, tsk" here and there.

In Vancouver, less than one in five eligible voters re-elected Gregor Robertson in 2011. In Victoria, less than one in six re-elected Dean Fortin. In Nanaimo, Kamloops, and Prince George, less than one in seven elected their mayors.

B.C.'s economy -- already facing what seems like the perfect economic storm of stagnant job growth, an acute skills shortage, and the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on First Nation land title claims -- can now add one more low pressure system into that mix: the Mount Polley mine disaster.

Nearly half of Imperial Metal's donations were made after Christy Clark was sworn in as premier, while $45,720 of Mount Polley's donations came via six separate cheques issued in one week alone in March 2013. Guess bank charges weren't an issue for the company.

That's politics. The public gets irate over the small amounts because they can relate to them. But the funny thing is that politicians who get the small things right generally don't screw up the bigger ones.

If cabinet ministers had theme songs, B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong's would likely be "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," because when there's a misstep in government it's a safe bet he'll be troubled by it.

That's what makes Ford Nation so extraordinary -- the incredible dichotomy that exists when it comes to criticism of most politicians and criticism of Rob Ford. Ford effectively gets what amounts to a jaw-dropping free pass from his base (in Toronto or in B.C.) nine times out of 10.

Part of the fault with the Elections BC database rests with the political parties and how they enter and supply data, and part lies with donors who sometimes opt to use slightly varied corporate names for donations to different parties. But the bulk of it lies with the database itself.